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Wallabies start and end at Twickers

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:01

Tour should help our preparations ahead of the World Cup

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has announced the fixtures for the Wallabies' 2014 end-of-year tour of Europe.

The tour will start at Twickenham on November 1, with Australia's first game against the Barbarians since 2011, before ending at the same venue with a fixture against next year’s Rugby World Cup hosts England on November 29.

The five-match trip to Europe is bound to be a testing one and it includes fixtures against Six Nations Champions Ireland at the Aviva Stadium and Wales in the cauldron that is the Millennium Stadium .

The Wallabies will also travel to Paris to take on France - where they lost 33-6 to the same opponents at the same venue in their last meeting in 2012.

On the 2013 year-end tour, after losing to England (13-20) at Twickenham, Australia embarked on a four-match winning run beating Italy in Turin (50-20), Ireland in Dublin (32-15), Scotland at Murrayfield (21-15) and Wales in Cardiff (30-26) making it the most successful Spring Tour since 2008.

Head Coach Ewen McKenzie will be looking for the trip to be as successful as last year’s end-of-year tour.

"The Spring Tour last year was the most successful in five years for the Wallabies and we’ll be looking to improve on that come November," McKenzie said.

McKenzie thinks that the varied opposition will be a good test for his side, and that the tour will be a good step in their preparation for the World Cup in 2015.

"With the Rugby World Cup just a year away in England, we have scheduled five games against five teams that will bring a different style to each.

"We’ve got England and Wales in our pool for the World Cup and big improvers in France and Ireland, who just won the Six Nations. That will be a good challenge for us.

"We’ll also get a chance to play two games at Twickenham - the venue where two of our pool games will take place - as part of a tour that should help further our preparations ahead of the World Cup," McKenzie added.